The financial differences of freelancing

Transcript

00:00:05 TONYA: Greetings, all of you Freelancers yearning to be financially stress-free. It’s time to take control. I’m Tonya Rapley. Welcome to a new series from State Farm and Let’s Start Today. This is where you’ll find the tools, support, and education you need to take control of your finances today and reach your goals for tomorrow. These helpful courses are inspired by an ever-evolving learning lab, known as Next Door State Farm.

And speaking of Next Door, I’m here with John, who is a financial coach at Next Door State Farm.

00:00:37 JOHN: Thanks for having me.

00:00:37 TONYA: And Krystal, who is a State Farm agent.

00:00:37 KRYSTAL: Thanks for having me here.

00:00:40 TONYA: Thank you guys for joining me. So today’s course is called Financial Foundation for Freelancers. Are you guys ready to enlighten and empower?

00:00:48 KRYSTAL: Yeah, let’s get to it.

00:00:49 TONYA: Before we do that, I want to go over the agenda, which is: An overview of the freelance world, Identifying your financial goals as a freelancer, Creating that budget in a budget overview for freelancers, Wait, I don’t work for a corporation, and Credit factors and action steps for freelancers. How does that sound to you guys?

00:01:09 KRYSTAL: Sounds good.

00:01:10 TONYA: All right. So let’s have some fun. Let’s dig into it. First things first; what is a freelancer?

00:01:15 JOHN: Freelancer essentially is somebody that doesn’t work for a corporation or really doesn’t work for anyone else, right? They work for themselves, typically working 1099 contract-types of gigs and they kind of have to look out for themselves.

00:01:32 TONYA: You don’t have that team that maybe a traditional entrepreneur might have, or someone who works for a corporation. It’s really you, and decisions start and fall with you.

00:01:38 JOHN: Exactly.

00:01:40 TONYA: Let’s have a look at what we’ve learned.

(Music / Chapter 1 Ends with Key Takeaways slide)

Working for You

When all the decision-making and other work responsibilities land on you, approaching your job looks very different. Self-employment is freeing and exciting, but it also requires diligence and planning to weather the ups and downs of contract work.

The more you understand, the better you're able to budget and protect yourself against challenges or slumps.